Pagan Christianity
I am reading a revolutionary and controversial book, Pagan Christianity, by Frank Viola and George Barna. The authors make the argument that the major practices of the institutional church, be it Catholic or Protestant, mainline or evangelical, have their roots not in New Testament teaching but were concessions to the culture, with roots in Pagan religion and Greek and Roman cultures.
Not too big of a deal, Christianity is always immersed in a culture. But they also make the argument that these features of the institutional church are at odds with what the church - the people who follow Christ - were meant to be and do.
They take aim at almost everything that most of us took for granted - and maybe still do - if we have spent any time in the institutional church including:
- Church buildings
- Order of worship
- Sermons
- Pastors
- Clergy dress and dressing up to go to church
- Miniters of music and worship teams
- Tithing
- Clergy salaries
- Baptism
- The Lord's supper
- Christian education
Viola's website says the book has been called "the most reviewed book in recent history by people who have never read it." which is highlighted on this spoof video.
For a sampling, let's take the section on the sermon. The authors say, "...today's sermon has no root in Scripture. Rather, it was borrowed from pagan culture, nursed and adopted into the Christian faith...The sermon actually detracts from the very purpose for which God designed the church gathering. And it has very little to do with genuine spiritual growth."
They go on to say while preaching is something we see in the N.T., sermons differ from biblical examples in several ways:
- the audience could participate and interrupt, making it more of a dialogue than a monologue
- it was usually ad hoc
- it was not a regualr occurence to the same set of people done by the same person.
It's harm is that the body only hears from one member. Rather than everyone expressing their gifts as we come together, only one person does. We miss the input from everybody else that scripture said is necessary, and it encourages passivity in the rest of the church.
The Anabaptists used to have a form where everyone could stand up and speak. Luther opposed this, said the practice came from the "pit of hell" and those who practiced it should be put to death. Sola scriptura indeed. Having grown up in the Anabaptist tradition I am said to say that many of them have also succmbed to the idea that anything of worth can only come from a few mouths.
Having already left the institutional church, I have had nothing to lose by reading it and finding it to have sound research, logic and theology. For anyone who is in the church, it could blow your mind.
But maybe that's not a bad thing.
posted by Jude | 8:11 PM
7 Comments:
"The Anabaptists used to have a form where everyone could stand up and speak."
That would have been the form of the "Lord's Supper" service that was part of my Brethren roots. It's one of the parts I miss the most.
I'm curious, Cindy, being as Brethren had limited roles for women, could women take part in what you're speaking about?
Interesting post. I agree completely with the points raised. Prairie Guy grew up brethren and to this day the brethren church in Italy has not adopted any of these points that the institutionalized church has succumbed to. As per your question to Cindy, in the European brethren churches women may speak as freely as men during the service but are not permitted to "preach". ie; they can spontaneously give testimony, pray publically exhort through scripture, but not "teach". At times women are taken under the cloak of authourity of the elders and granted permission to teach something that they are especially versed/trained in.
Personally, although there was a point 3 years ago I was ready to ditch church all together and thought it was a lost cause, God has led us to the point where we realize yes, this is not what He planned, but at the same time, it is still His body, deformed and crippled as it well may be, and we are still part of it. We will not pull ourselves out merely because there are "failures" but will do our best to be a testimony to what we believe Church should look like, from the inside, connected to all of those other ligaments that are also connected to Him.
I love the little glimpse inside your head. I am sometimes consumed with very similar thoughts, and makes me feel a kindred spirit with you (despite the fact that we may come to different conclusions, I'm good with that!).
Interesting to note that my 2 comments are from a person who is now in the church where I spent my growing up years, and a person who was in the church were I spent most of my adult life.
To clarify a bit, I feel I've left the institutional church but not THE church because I can't leave what I am a part of. I am still knitted in relationship to others, including you 2 fabulous women who have commented thus far, I still seek gain wisdom and insight through communication with others who are part of the church, I still try to live my life as one who is part of Christ's body. We may again be part of a somewhat more formalized but still organic body in the future, although I can't ever see us in an institutional form of it again. The catch - God's got to be to be the author, because I can't live in a form that is primarily human directed anymore and remain emotionally balanced. This is easy in some ways, hard in others. But I am quite certain that God is taking me on this journey. I honestly believe he pulled me out of the institution. If anything, I fought to stay in, and go back to it, long after his grace no longer sustained me there.
Yes, Jude, in the "open Brethren" communities that I was part of women were allowed to participate, but most still requested/required that some sort of head covering be worn a la I Corinthians.
Another noteworthy thing was that although it was primarily men who taught on a Sunday morning, it was generally a variety of men and not the same one all the time. And most communities might have a "paid worker", but not a pastor, per se.
If I recall correctly, our mid-week studies were often a discussion around what had been taught on the previous Sunday - in groups small enough for everyone to have a voice.
But it's the "family" feel of the community that I miss the most. *sigh*
Too bad there are other reasons for me/us not to return.
Hey am I too late to jump in here??? I'd like to be added to the list of Fabulous Women! (great line Jude) :-)
Well as you know, I also grew up Brethern. We were open so my experience was the same as PrairieChick we were allowed to speak freely but not "teach" And like Cindy we had no paid "pastor", it was always a different variety of men teaching. A bit backwards in someways with the whole men/women thing, but like Cindy it is the one thing I miss, and always remember, and always make a comment about why other churches don't do things leaning more towards that. Good to know we got somethings right eh Cindy?
Anyway... we are part of a small church here in Neepawa and I am loving it. There are some things that are still very traditional, but the things you mention Jude that are harming the church aren't here. It must be a combination of a bunch of differnet things (church size, my age, rural life, mindset of people attending) but we have regualr audience participation, a lot of times the pastor has put his notes aside and preached on something totally spur of the moment, and because of Hockey, calving, seeding, and harvest, it seems like there isn't always the same people there. I have never felt a churches need/want/desire for ME and MY gifts, as desperately as I have felt it here. True they still have a lot of "traditional things" but there are some key things that are so good that it's easy to forgive the more traditional parts that aren't my style. Kind of like food you can forgive/overlook a lot if something tastes really good. Maybe size is part of it? I don't know, but for some reason people feel free to ask questions during the sermon, and we have been pretty much given a green light on anything that we want to do. And we are continually being challenged to "do the stuff."
I finally feel like we are in a place where church is more then just a self help seminar, and more then a meeting about social justice. In this community if I ignore Christ in my life and what he is doing with me then it acutally matters to the body because it can't function as it once did. And people actually care about that. And they care by helping me out in every sense of the word practically, emotionally or sometimes they just get down right mad at me. Which is great!
It is so freeing to be in a church where I matter to it and it matters to me. It's blowing my mind just being in there.
Anyway, I'm so curious to read this bood. I remember reading Barna in Bible school and he heading in this direction but not quite there, so it would be interesting to read it.
Keep going on your search Jude, you are on to something here, it's an important journey.
Interesting perspective considering your background. I will have to read more of your stuff. Meantime, if you are interested, I am posting a 5 part interview with both George Barna and Frank Viola. Please feel free to pass the word and share your thoughts.
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